By LAUREN SILVER
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (Court TV) — An Oregon couple is facing multiple charges after police said they lured two siblings across the country and then forced them into indentured servitude.
Eastwood Mohammed Mannan and Cassie Jo Gudino are accused of kidnapping and forcing siblings into indentured servitude. (Grants Pass Police Department)
The Grants Pass Police Department announced the arrest of Eastwood Mohammed Mannan, 35, and Cassie Jo Gudino, 27, on Monday, June 12, after a 22-year-old victim escaped and called 911. Police said that the caller claimed to have been “forced into involuntary servitude for months” by his cousin and a female.
Detectives said that the male victim and his 19-year-old sister, who were not identified, were lured from their home in New York with promises of freedom and a job. Over several months, Mannan and Gudino allegedly “forced the victims to work by using fear of serious physical injury and use of torture, such as burning them with a torch, ice baths, beatings and starvation. The victims were required to give all money earned from online employment to the suspects.”
In an affidavit obtained by The Oregonian, police said that the suspects placed parental control-style restrictions on the male victim’s electronic devices, preventing him from reaching out for help. He told police that he wanted to leave in February, but “feared the ‘consequences,’ which included being beaten and starved.” Police said that the victim reported having broken ribs and had visible burns and bruises when he was rescued.
When police executed a search warrant on June 12, officers located and rescued the female victim and arrested both suspects at the scene.
Mannan and Gudino are charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree subjecting another person to involuntary servitude. Online jail records indicate both were held on $50,000 bail.
